More than 27,000 new private cars were licensed in May 2000, an increase of 46 per cent on the figure for May 1999.

In the first five months of this year some 134,627 cars were licensed compared to 93,000 in the same period in 1999.

The most popular model licensed in May was Volkswagen (3,069), followed by Ford (3,031) and Toyota (2,984).